I owe and hereby offer a sincere apology to GeneralStanley McChrystal for perpetuating Anti-Hibernian (anti Irish) stereotypes. You simply made a mistake. I applaud your sincerity. Once again General, I was all wrong about you. You can come by for a beer anytime. You are a credit to the Irish!

Republican History Class- The Rise of Capitalism Part 1 – Those Crazy Romans

The Romans were around a really long time ago. It was like a pretty long time after all the stuff from Star Wars happened but like 2,000 years before the United States and the Republican Party, which is ½ the time

the Romans were prominent proto Capitalist’s who were kind of like Americans but like earlier and less cool. Here’s Centurion Gaius Johnius Wayniuos

the Universe has existed. At some point, somebody, maybe Julius Caesar, invented capitalism.
Capitalism was not immediately popular although it was always the best. People were still lazy so it took a really long time to catch on. The Romans however, made some progress towards capitalism. They were the only ones who really tried to use the gold,oil and other stuff that blooms from the earth like flowers. They did pretty good but never really mastered the stuff. For example their flamethrowers totally sucked and only worked at sea! How misguided is that? They were more like “lamethrowers”. This is because even though they were Romans and better than anyone else in their time, they still just weren’t Americans. Whenever we took up their ideas we unfucked all their mistakes and did a radically more kick ass job at everything they ever tried.Slavery and a really large prison labor population made sure people took responsibility for their lives. This was amongst the greatest accomplishments ever by non Americans in labor utilization. For a while, in a move that was early proof of the futility of generosity the Romans had the slaves wear snappy belts so they could be easily identified. But the ungrateful slaves scared the Romans out of this by being typical liberals and didn’t even say thank you. Instead they used their preponderance of numbers to intimidate their job creators. Even though the Romans took the slave belts away so the slaves could enjoy the challenge of earning them back, they had made the fatal error of generosity because they were soft pre- American Semi-capitalists. So they failed and things went to shit for a long time. Like 1/3 of the entire history of the earth.

The Romans were gifted and dedicated early innovators of War.

The Ancient Romans excelled in war. This is mostly because they really deeply and truly loved war in and of itself and partly coincidence because the Romans were like the shortest people in Europe! While most dwarf races would have just quit war right then and there and moved on to a useless pastoral existence, the Romans dug down deep and invented Atlas so he could shrug!

Venture Capitalism and their wimpy stature meant the ancient Romans pragmatically decided to fight smart and mean because to them nothing was worse than the alternative (peace). They got good at it really fast because they were constantly attacking their neighbors whether they were a threat or not or even had anything worth taking. They kicked serious fucking ass with an army that was filled with people who had to have land and money just to fight in it. They willingly and eagerly signed on for a stunning 20 year hitch in a time where people rarely hit 30. And get this, they were snobs about it too; If you couldn’t buy your

Emperor Richardus Harrissus and General Russellus Crowious were two of the most important Romans.

own weapons you could stay the fuck home, pussy! They probably used trained Dinosaurs to help their armies because they were super badass and did what all armies need to do. Provided an ever expanding market with limitless opportunity for their early pre American proto-Corporations.
They were already super violent and loved war so its really not surprising that this Army kicked ass like no one else until America.

Like us, they treated and paid their volunteer soldiers like shit. They motivated their military with an early commission style approach. The more people they killed and the faster they did it the more they would earn because you got to keep everything you wanted from the people you killed. This plunder oriented pay policy really put the vulture into vulture capitalism and was especially awesome at bringing a war to a quick end so that the next war could start on time.

Some of the stuff their army pulled off was fucking cray, man! It was all due to hands on management techniques like forcing 90% of their soldiers to bludgeon to death the other 10% when they lost a battle. This brilliant insight into what we would now call Human Resources and payroll reduction increased productivity immensely. So basically they almost never lost. They were like the New York Yankees of war but even better because Jeter and the rest of the bench could kill A-Rod and Joba Chamberlain after they choked in a playoff game right there in the On Deck Circle to appease the crowd!

Among other things they routinely accomplished a Hiroshima worthy level death and destruction when they were really pissed off. They invented military mind games to fuck with and kill as many people as they could in as short a time as possible. A lot of times they would look like they were wussing out and all run away. But they were actually just drawing the douchebags who were stupid enough to fuck with them into a Circle Jerk of Death because like 3 times more war starved Romans were waiting to run in from all directions and the guys who had looked all pussy-ified running away would turn around and start beating on your ass like an army of fucking Bosses. It was such a badass way to fight that no one ever lived to tell people about it so it worked all the time! They could totally fuck up your city too almost as well as a small nuclear bomb like the one the Iranians probably already have. In a brilliantly prosecuted attack on early Soviet style super pussies Carthage they managed to sterilize the soil for decades so the bad guys couldn’t get slaves of their own to grow food for them. It wasn’t done in a day because they weren’t Americans though. They just weren’t as good at things as we are.The Roman legal system was also very innovative. People were guilty until proven innocent and didn’t have lawyers. In true shows of democracy the Romans would routinely render judgment for whimsical reasons like who a lion thought tasted best or on how loud the supporters of the accused could shout. The first approach is obviously the best but the second part is super cool too. Look how well it worked in the Jesus trial! If

Historical evidence shows that Roman peasants and slaves spent most of their time being lazy and getting stoned

they could do some kind of version of ‘the wave’ and maybe a ‘Let’s Go Yankees/ Go Barabus’ kinda chant the guy would always go free, which is pretty bitchin’ if you think about it.
The Romans society collapsed due to poor border control and immigration policies, over regulation, and wasting time on infrastructure. Roman failings include excellent roads, some of which are still being used and failed public works projects like aquaduct’s to bring water to people in cities. The Aquaduct system sapped Roman manpower and even distracted their army from war sometimes. The free aquaduc system worked perfectly for hundreds of years with little maintenance, so no one made any money off planned obsolescence. Let’s face it they were just too nice.
Eventually the non rich people started acting all crazy and complaining that the lead in the free water was no good for them in a great early display of public whining. This was also an early example of why spending money on infrastructure is a really, really bad idea. Part of the mistake was probably giving the water away for free in the first place. Their poor people were even stupider and lazier than their modern counterparts so no even bothered to invent a water filter. This is all because they were only sort of like Americans and also still had to spend a lot of time dodging marauding pterodactyls.

In 2012’s imaginary Tea Party needs a more aggressive fake mascot. Out with Mad Hatters, in with Mad HATERS!

Was there EVER a Tea Party? Is it just a figment of the media’s collective imagination? The only time hear about the Tea Party seems to be when it gets sued for overbooking hotel rooms to the tune of ¾ million dollars. Add to that the fact that puppetmasters/ con men like Grover Norquist with his laughable No tax Raises ever pledge and Karl Rove wasted well over ¼ BILLION dollars to push Tea Party “darlings” who failed miserably. Republicans all over America, especially our friends in the Republican Cargo Cult just can’t turn off Fox News long enough to figure out how they blew (another) election when they had this ‘massive grass roots movement’ looking to vote out their hated Anti-Reagan, President Barack Obama. Well the answer is as simple as it is disheartening to the Right- the Tea party doesn’t, hasn’t and never will exist. More and more republicans seem to be coming around to my way of thinking as they flee Grover Norquist and crucify Karl Rove. Don’t worry though, theres not enough rational Republicans left to win an election of any consequence. Most have become absolutely apoplectic trying to figure out how the Democrats ‘stole’ the election. Most are in the grips of a deep and abiding self hating denial that Republicans are a dying breed only capable of making enemies and creating Democrats all day long in spite of their intentions to the contrary.

Their out of touch comments on race, gender and of course Todd Akin’s ‘”legitimate rape” followed by utter failure at the polls has exposed the Tea Party for what it is, or more appropriately ISN’T. It isn’t a real political party, it nominates no one, loses elections for Republicans and creates Democrats.I have found credible supporters on the right who completely back up my assertion. On the November 20th installment of the nearly unwatchable Hardball with Chris MatthewsMatt Kibbe of Freedomworks and sporter of the worst sideburns this side of the Civil War emphatically insisted that there is no Tea party, merely “Tea Party Ideas” and a “set of issues” that define Tea party thought. He quickly dismissed Christine O’Donnell and Todd Akin as whack job non tea party candidates from the “social conservative” wing of the party, therefore not true tea baggers. This in spite of repeatedly agreeing with and endorsing their ideas. Even a big time righty pundit can’t pretend theres a Tea Party without self contradicting and appearing completely but yet somehow militantly rudderless

Interestingly the only example of “Tea Party Ideas” Kibbe could come up with was insisting the non existent Tea Party Tea Party was “colorblind” (easy for something that doesn’t even exist) and hated Ear Marks. About the only thing he could back up his ideas with was that they have destroyed candidates who would have won and replaced them with sub-par lunatics with baggage like being a self professed Witch. He seemed quite proud of this.

Poke-Mon fanatic, pizza mogul and part of the small but self hating cadre of token black tea baggers

Kibbe then went on to extoll the virtues of Climate Change Denial and the likelihood of Intelligent Design to prove he was a scientific believer and not a whacko from the “social conservative’ faction of the non existent Tea Party who just happens to be willfully ignorant. His proof of his assertions was the Federal Government just can’t seem to pass a budget. He seems oblivious to the fact he had just boasted that his non existant Tea Party wielded huge influence by primarying out likely winners with whack jobs who are forced to explain how they weren’t a witch. I love Matt Kibbe he’s so out of it and self contradicting he proves my point for me. His ‘I know you are but what am I?’ rejoinders were guy bustingly inept. The Red Bull addicted Chris Matthews didn’t even need to shout him down. Matthews was probably still pissed though considering he gets paid to do primal scream therapy and laud his ridiculously idealized idea of JFK (at every possible excuse). Matthews is a walking mess of Liberal stereotypes and a self hating guilt ridden white apologist who mimes being bummed about his success.
Kibbe must have been on crack to fail so terribly destroying Matthews misinformed point of view and mock worthy assertions and simply eating the guy for lunch. This unexploited huge opening comparable only to the New York Jets Offensive Line really reinforces the fact that the tea party is more a mantra for unspecified knee jerk lefty hating. The non existant tea party is a GIFT to progressives.
At least 5 Senate seats have been all but given away with psycho candidates. None gained a national office, managing to merely flood the idiot convention that is the US House of Representatives with one and done ideologues like hate spewing Wild Wild Allen West. Fortunately West is among the many tea bagger maniacs NOT returning to Congress. Florida also boasts Governor Rick “Skeletor” Scott, as man who said whatever people wanted to hear and then went about destroying a multi billion dollar infrastructure project to kick off his masterful suppression of jobs and votes in Florida. Scott knew going in his job was to serve his masters well, not to govern. The beauty of this is that another crazed bagger can run unopposed to outflank Scott to the right and perpetuate more fraud on the oppressed citizens of the part of Teabagistan know as Florida.

Florida is a great example of a real mess created by the fake tea party. The constant ballot tweaking to make them impossible to fill out and take as much as 45 minutes to read and certify, the fixing of local races and general incompetence have destroyed any accurate voter based demographics to allow the Republicans to Gerrymander. Over a decade of blatant voter suppression and dishonest county electors means that the best empirical evidence, an accurate count of who voted how and where, is at best a crap shoot.This is part of a negative feedback loop thats turning Florida Bluer and Bluer even faster than minority population votes. living through 2011 in Central Florida (thank GOD i am back in Queens!) i met MANY a gun loving Good Ol’ Boy who was just so disillusioned they were either throwing their votes away on dementia sufferer Ron Paul or just so pissed that they were willing to stand in line for up to 9 hours to vote for Obama. Having no job thanks to Rick Scott freed up enough time for the oppressed citizens to navigate his intentionally frustrating voting laws. To many outside of Florida who haven’t seen this disturbing prequel of what a Romney

people say Rick Scott looks like third rate cartoon villain Skeletor. I say more like Bat-Boy

tea bagger America would have been like the stupidity of Skeletor’s methods just seem like “tough love”. Easy for people who love fetuses but hate children, especially educating them. Uneducated children almost invariably grow up to be Republicans. Fortunately most are so turned off to politics they don’t even bother to vote.

We have just seen how the Right Wing Echo Chamber has trapped most on the right in a Fox News created fantasy land where Romney was barely edged out by Obama gifting poor people and how far off their vaunted ‘Internal Polls’ were. In fact the Polls on the Right were so far into “Dewey Wins” ineptitude that its hard to say whether it was merely misguided, intentional propaganda or a combination of both.
Part of my case is the fact that even though there seems to be almost NO EVIDENCE of people showing up en masse to support the Tea Party; C-PAC and other weird ultra-right organizations have perpetuated the myth of a Tea Party just by using the word at their hate cabal’s. Is there even a movement of any appreciable size that REALLY believes in the Tea Party, which is subject to some debate in and of itself.The Tea Party Supporters seem to break down along the whacky rights “Three G’s”, or if you’re not into the whole brevity thing; God, Guns and Gays.
Depending on who you talk to all, some or none of these things are important. Talk to a Tea Bagger and its really a roulette wheel of ignorance as to what their delusion is.Guns- Ok, so we all know Americans just LOVE guns. The NRA is a pretty damn big lobbyist and has really spent millions over decades to deeply affect the attitudes towards guns, especially handguns. When I spent my year living in Central Florida I was shocked how many shootings there were. After awhile shock changed to disgust. It was a 30 second story pretty much every time. Sometimes a couple of people or a cop would be shot. The Trayvon Martin murder happened while I was there. What shocked me most was not that there is an American city with a violent crime problem, but how the people who live there have been conditioned to think. To quote Clint Eastwood, “He shoulda armed himself”. That’s right, you are the idiot for not owning a weapon. You can get duly licensed pistol and carry permit by the non background checking and seemingly unrelated to guns, The Florida Department

These are what Rick Scott Overpaid Government Workers. Soon Fire Departments will be subscription only services if tea Baggers get their way. Watch for specials on high capacity garden hoses or the Baggers will only blame you when your place burns!

of Agriculture. Go figure. This is a stupid as blaming someone whose house was firebombed for not having a bigger hose.
Guns are here to stay. Even if massive resources were brought to bear, we are decades away from a from a societal shift away from Gun porn obsession. The problem- some people are simply impossible to convince the government is somehow going to take their guns away. Where this comes from is anyone’s guess. The best theory I have- this was the seed from which Fox News sprang.
The NRA is an early experiment in non reality in a world where baseball players were endorsing cigarettes and selling Oldsmobile’s in the off season. It worked. As time marched on for a long time media drove at the same, now seemingly leisurely pace. Simply perpetuating the increasingly untrue idea that a gun was a very necessary and important tool so indispensible only a Commie wouldn’t want you to have one. Almost in spite of itself though, the pro gun movement evolved. “Guns Don’t Kill People, People Do.” Was a catchphrase as effective as “Jackpot Justice”, a term used to describe the motivations of a septuagenarian who needed internal vaginal skin grafts after a cup of McDonalds coffee collapsed in her lap due to faulty design and insanely hot coffee. The idea is, throw people a fish and watch them slap their flappers together.
Ask JFK if guns don’t kill people, ask Malcolm X, ask Bobby Kennedy or MLK. Oh wait, they were killed with GUNS! So I guess “guns Don’t Kill People. People Do” is a great slogan because anyone who can say otherwise is as dead as disco.God- this one’s a bitch to understand because traditional Christian values are

Fox News Polling- all 3 answers negative, making a scientific result impossible. Republicans HATE science. Thisis why they make up crazed theories to keep their gold buying Sheople scared and increases commercial viewing (their only real goal at Fox)

All the worlds problems caused by one talking snake. leave it to the Baggers to find this an uplifting image

supposed to be the biggest cornerstones of the compassionate side of the Tea party. This is the side that would force a raped woman to produce a ‘gift’ from a man who is not a criminal, but a Messenger from God. Well how do you put the messengers of God in jail? The people;e in Sodom and Gomoherra only wanted to have sex with Gods messengers and they were basically nuked according to the Bible. In fact in all the billions years 4000 years of Republican history this may well be the most important biblical thing to have actually OCCURRED already. The most important stuff in the Republican Bible is stuff that hasn’t happened yet, namely, the fucking Apocalypse and making sure all the nice people will all get ready to all get “raptured away” while the rest of us suffer through unimaginable pain and are finally cast into the flames of Gehena. Thanks a lot Tim Tebow!Gays– You would think that God would be happy his children were loving and not hurting each other. Thankfully the republicans disabuse of of our ignorance concerning a loving, caring God. That’s the Commie’s God.
Republican God is an angry guy who just detested all the fun those crazy Sodomites were having. Seems simple enough, but by extension, God, who in the space of 4000 years has interceded on an almost annual basis directly into our lives, is a pissy neighbor who needs to be kept happy. God is the opposite of Government. He is Big, REALLY BIG. He’s entitled to tell you how to live and in exchange you give him money, plenty of sweet, sweet money. So take heart that the Bible says not only “An eye for an eye,” but also- ‘Love thy Brother as Thyself’ Like the famous “Jefferson Bible” , which removed all mention of the supernatural, the Republican Bible stresses the Supernatural, basically a 236 year backward intellectual jump. That itself is impressive. Furthermore the Republican interpretation of the Bible contains a heavily redacted, narrowly read ball of total ignorance only the complete truth. The part about Jesus NOT riding a dinosaur to work, well that was such ridiculous and nonsensical no one even thought to put it in because a talking snake is hard enough to believe cut out by heretical, pre reformation monks.
So when 2 men kiss, anywhere, God gets on Priceline and gets his Messengers ready to go turn peoples wives into pillars of salt. All fun of any kind NEEDS to be suppressed. This works GREAT for the Tea party. They are old, they are angry, they are few in number. Like all Cults they are driven to reproduce in the largest possible numbers, but they are old and their sick ideas will die with them.
Guns seem safe, so the tea baggers supporting that concept seem to be spinning their wheels like an overloaded El Camino in the snow. Somehow the myth of the absolute need to have a gun to avoid being a gay atheist just won’t loosen up.Go figure.
God? Well for a while he wasn’t quite as big as the Beatles, and his earthly ambassadors were busy doing the worst things imaginable, but he’s not going

anywhere, if he actually IS anywhere, but that’s a WHOLE ‘nother blog post! So God- safe. Not gonna lose any influence. If anything he should intercede to get himself some less hateful messengers here on Earth.
Gays?- Well gay people are in some trouble. Its always been hard for a gay kid growing up amongst the gay people in violent denial in the Hell hole that IS Texas, but I think the danger level has gone up, sadly. The end of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, emergence of Gay Rights and even gay Adoption is motivator for people who just hate fun. You would think so longs as they either invite you to their party you don’t have a whole lot to complain about (because they party like no one else).
So where are these people? They can’t fill a hotel with people. They are only seen in very tight shots and almost only on FOX News. Its likely these people number in the dozens, even in a population center like Manhattan their aren’t enough people to produce a decent tinfoil hat brigade for the Tea Party.
The Tea Party is a catchphrase, just like “Jackpot Justice”. There are no ‘members’ per se. Sure a chapter exisats here and there, but theres no cross coordination. Its an imaginary space monster from a poorly written third season episode of Original Star Trek. Fear them not.

Where Empires Go To Die
In the decade plus since United States Forces effectively invaded and toppled the outlaw Taliban Regime in Afghanistan nothing has been accomplished and the toll continues to rise. With NATO scheduled to leave in 2014 pretty much one way or another the elephant in the room is-“Why Wait?”—A decade wasted
Now into a second decade of strife the roots of the conflict; namely the degeneration of Afghanistan into a veritable perpetual state of civil war, are still pushing fruit from the rocky soil. The Taliban seem to be everywhere and

America is currently slated to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Hamid Karzai’s whole life has been one long audition to be a Star Trek Villain.

nowhere. They remain a threat and hard numbers on their membership are simply unavailable. These vicious goons will do anything for money, place no value on lives of themselves or any others and live off and outdated and widely disavowed interpretation of Islam. Only in a dystopia like Afghanistan could such a movement thrive.
Where do these fanatics come from? Doubtless the lack of education, in particular for girls, plays a role. In 2002 it was estimated that less than half of all males and more than 3/4ths of all female Afghani’s had any education at all. It sports the ignominious distinction of having the highest illiteracy rate in Asia. Illiteracy makes it impossible for anyone to research anything first hand. Analytical skills are never formally developed by professional educators. The end result would inevitably a person whose world view was dependent on those who can read having an enormously disproportionate amount of influence. In Afghanistan an Islamic version of the Westboro Baptist Church would be considered relatively moderate, at least in its actions. Imagine a nation where outside the capital almost no one can read looking to a few mullahs, who roughly equate to radical Apocalypse Preachers, for all their information, especially religious matters. A nonstop highly localized but unified anti American philosophy is constantly being espoused. Unlike Apocalypse Preachers elsewhere, they have some ‘proof’ of their visions. This proof is what the United States Military has termed “Collateral Damage” mixed regularly breaking atrocity stories and a stark cultural difference which leaves both sides in perpetual shock. Mutual understanding and acceptance still appear to be out of reach and qualify as mere wishful thinking. The Occupation in and of itself engenders a hateful attitude towards NATO. The populace at large, whatever their education level or analytical abilities, will not risk defying the Taliban. The Taliban have burnished their reputation as murderous thugs who can terrorize effectively even if their numbers are small.–Green on Blue and the overt failure of Nation Building
The Kabul Government installed by George W Bush in 2002 has a reputation for ineffective corrupt actions second to none in the world. Good billions are thrown after bad into a roaring furnace of pointlessness.
The entire approach of Nation Building for Afghanistan proceeds from a false assumption- That anyone in Afghanistan WANTS a nation. Afghanistan is a nation that can be viewed as a collection of fiefdoms run by an overlord of sorts. This the core weakness of the Nation Building approach and the greatest ally of the insurgency.
The gains of the NATO Coalition have been limited and may be of no benefit to NATO’s mission. Literacy rates have surely risen, but the kind of dent this has made in the Afghani world view is not quantifiable. It is a fair assertion to imagine a slowly dwindling but still unbelievably high rate of illiteracy may take a generation or more to have any impact. While admirable, educating the Afghani’s has apparently yielded very little fruit. A generation that was of kindergarten age to the age where a American would be graduating High School has apparently not resulted in the hoped for sudden and acute emergence of Common Sense and aversion to violence. Attacks on Afghan girls by Taliban aligned extremists are a sustained and heartbreaking thread of tragedy running through the entire American War.
The biggest failure of the Occupation is undoubtedly the Afghan Army and Security Forces. These entities simply can NOT be trusted. They are easily corruptible and their porous ranks seem easily penetrated by operatives of the Taliban and al Qaeda. The insurgency has grown and mutated to take advantage of this.
Green on Blue Attacks, where Afghani security forces turn their weapons on their

The illustrious Afghan Army. Seriously, with friends like these guys…?

American counterparts became an almost daily reality before NATO Forces ended joint patrol and training operations with the Afghan Army this past summer.
Green on Blue is such a potent weapon, and so impossible to guard against that they have changed the way the Occupation is implemented and perceived. The Afghan Army and Security Forces are the very definition of failure. They are a dangerous and random element. One can only imagine illiteracy amongst it ranks is prevalent. This is a key aspect why the Iraqi Occupation was a comparative success. Iraq had a high level of education and an abundance of college educated members of their society. Despite regional differences which may one day result in a fragmenting of the current Iraq, there was a sense, spread by state run media, that Iraq had a National Identity. A degree of cohesiveness made it one country, at least to the point where perception and reality overlapped. Brutal oppression was embodied in one man, a hated and reviled dictator. Sadaam Hussein’s execution was a unifying moment of the sort the Afghani’s never had.
In Afghanistan fiefdom was and is the norm. No one evil dictator was available to embody the nation’s frustration. While surely oppressed, Afghan’s never had a modern frame of reference to show them a better life. TV, electricity, air

conditioning and other modern conveniences taken for granted just don’t exist.
Enter NATO. Killing off one warlord after another seemed to be producing results. One valley at a time was occupied and a concerted attempt to bring the 21st century to that fiefdom would be undertaken. This did little more than create targets. Power Stations can be blown up faster than they are built. A few brutal acts of terrorism can intimidate an entire village if not the nation at large into shunning education for reasons that are readily apparent. Being an illiterate live person still beats being a well-read corpse or being doused in kerosene and set afire. No amount of Baywatch re-runs, if they are even available, will change this simple fact of life- In Afghanistan seeking an education is an impediment, especially for girls, to staying alive.–Two minutes and 22 months to Midnight-
NATO’s mission is set to wrap up by the end of 2014. For America, our military and the Afghani’s this can’t come soon enough.

The looming question- what will these next 2 years produce to legitimize America’s longest war? Education has been a failure and has played into the hands of the terrorists we were originally there to fight. The Nation Building experiment is a failure of monumental proportions. The Kabul Government is a front for corruption led by an unqualified bi-polar madman. The mullah’s still hold sway over the majority of public opinion. The Afghan Army is a dangerous and uncontrollable rogue element that can NOT be trusted in any way. Cultural change never materialized, one Koran burned by mistake or a culturally insensitive act or remark regularly result in mass civil unrest that gets NATO troops killed and injured.
Staying will not change any of this. Osama bin Laden is dead. Killed by roughly 60 highly trained commandos in a raid that could have taken place in 2002 and spared the United States all the Blood and Treasure that is still being wasted trying to force the 21st Century onto a rural and agrarian society still dependent on Opium as its biggest

The Taliban’s cash generating renewable resource. Opium

cash crop. Opium is a renewable resource. Stability and legitimacy are not.
Kabul is doomed. Afghanistan should be effectively quarantined. It has little to offer the outside world. Westerners, even armed, trained masses of soldiers, simply aren’t safe and clearly not accepted. It’s a medieval society barely past the Dark Age that they could fall back into at any time. Anger is a renewable resource easily harvested by the influential radicals who hold sway outside the capital.
The obvious comparisons are the American War for Independence and Vietnam. A far off Imperial power fights an unpopular, endless low intensity war where casualties mount despite success in the few real battles fought. Lone wolf operations are infinitely possible, sniping and IED’s are not preventable. So far it seems by simply refusing to give up the insurgents have taken control of the conflict.
There’s no reason to stay. Comparative figures for how much tax money per capita is spent by the United States per Afghani versus US Citizen are unavailable but would surely be eye opening and may well show that average American has benefitted less from the taxes they pay than the Afghani’s we pay to protect and force democracy on. It’s a safe bet the Afghani’s have seen more. America’s economy is tanking, the entire world is spinning plates to avoid Financial Apocalypse. Afghanistan has been a blood soaked money pit. The solution- we should leave tomorrow. No transition, no draw down. Leave.
No case can be made for staying. Everything that needed to be done, killing and capturing the Murderer’s behind 9-11, is complete. Osama bin Laden swims with the fishes. Every single motive to stay beyond that has failed. This is textbook Mission Creep.
There is no dishonor in immediate withdrawal. The wasted years must come to an end. The Dystopia cannot be fixed. In Afghanistan things will be upside down until

The last chopper out of Saigon. Will the Afghan War end as badly?

they themselves decide otherwise. This is the time to leave, lest the final images from our longest war be like those of the Vietnam fiasco. That war was summed up in one picture. The images of a heavily overburdened Huey helicopter struggling into the air from the roof of the United States Embassy. It’s an image of failure. Staying any longer serves no purpose beyond stoking the furnaces of the War Pig Corporations with more blood money.
We should run like Hell. –The Brutalization of our soldiers and loss of our Military Professionalism
Fighting a 15 year war has not been easy on the military. This is the sort of thing that can turn even the most even keeled person into a homicidal maniac. The obvious cases, like the attack on Afghan civilians by SSgt Robert Bales are so horrible they numb the mind. How a man who grew up in the midlands of Ohio

Ssgt Robert Bales looking very detail oriented

could one day find himself building a funeral pyre of woman and children he had murdered shows how far the military has been stretched.
Consider as well murdering coward Major Nidal Hasan. Hasan showed open contempt for the country whose uniform he was somehow allowed to wear. Apparently too incompetent to be a surgeon he was apparently re-tasked as a shrink. Rather than showing compassion and using his medical training to help

Dress however you want; but this look at the base PX could be considered something of a red flag. being a bad soldier was the real problem but this guy wasn’t hiding anything

them with PTSD and other pitfalls of return to a nation that only realized we were at war when CIA Director and ex-General David Petraeus’ affair went viral. Despite this, and other bizarre incidents where Hasan seemed like a malevolent version of Klinger, desperately trying to avoid doing his military duty by dressing in drag, or in this case hardcore Muslim religious garb; not much was done in the way of checking this guy out. While within his rights to dress however he wants, this is not exactly the kind of thing your average soldier wears to pick up groceries at the base PX. Add to that the breakdown in screening and the massive labor gap the military deals with every day bridging the gap between the do-able and the necessary. There were no shortage of complaints regarding Hassan’s dishonorable and outright weird behavior, the fact he was a self-radicalized Muslim extremist was just barely popping onto the radar when Hasan went operational and betrayed his medical oath, military oath and the Pledge of Allegiance in a trifecta of treacherous

Bradley manning as a civilian

Consider lastly Private Bradley Manning. Manning is perhaps the most intriguing and polarizing figure in all of America’s 21st century wars. History will likely judge him more kindly than he can expect at his imminent court martial. Was manning ever a good candidate for high security work where he would see things that would shock the mind and perhaps even poison the soul? Now that we know the results the answer screams back “NO!” The idea that a 20 years old private, the lowest rank in the military, could have access to top secret databases and be allowed to bring CD’s capable of re-recording video and downloading a great deal of damaging information is mind blowing. Where’s Psy-Ops when you need them? Manning was not prepared for his job and those who assigned him to it share some of the blame.

Replicants=Drones? just a thought

It doesn’t seem like it would have taken a Blade Runner level personality scan to know this kid could have done a better job in another MOS or maybe even wasn’t the best fit for the military in the first place.
It is an open question whether Manning can make a credible assertion that he simply refused to comply with what amounted to an Unconstitutional Order. It seems a long shot. Manning will likely do considerable jail time. The information he provided, perhaps naively, to Julian Assaange and the Wikileaks people (who no longer seem all that crazy about Assange), was devastating and is akin to the Pentagon papers and the Uncounted Enemy Scandal of these wars.
It is a military filled with competent soldiers who are dedicated professionals, this goes without saying. However the sheer weight of numbers needed to prosecute war a half a world away has resulted in a rift between the ideal or even acceptable soldier what passes for acceptable in the face of the need to accomplish vital tasks, even support tasks, in a situation that has been apparently being done on an ad hoc basis for a decade and change.
Afghanistan may not be able to solve its own problems, but 13 years of American help hasn’t changed much. The Karzai regime is a disgraceful corrupt sham and the continual shameful waste of our blood and treasure there needs to end before the scheduled withdrawal in 2014.

Has over a decade of War caused the Military to lower its Recruiting Standards and overlook troops in trouble?

Afghan Massacre- What do we know? What does it say?

US Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales was a war hero, veteran of 4 combat tours. No man could have been asked to do more, yet he was and he did…. And then the wheels came off. He served his country, but now he stands accused of an atrocity unheard of in United States Military since the Court Martial of Lt. William Calley in connection with the Mi Lai Massacre. On a night in March of this year Bales went on 2 separate trips off his base in Afghanistan

Staff Sergeant Robert Bales in better times.

and allegedly murdered 16 civilians. After the murders he piled up and burned the bodies.

A timeline is emerging, and details, both horrifying and bizarre.The chain of events was apparently started with Bales drinking alcohol with other soldiers in a combat zone, a violation of Army Regulations. Then things become fuzzy for awhile as Bales prepared for what would mark the lowest point so far of the US Occupation of Afghanistan. Witnesses to the shooting spree gave some indications he appeared drunk as he was carrying out the killings.

This week via Satellite from Afghanistan some children and old men fortunate enough to be spared in the massacres testified about Bales killing children, wantonly. Apparently after the first round of atrocities he returned to base where he woke a fellow soldier and boasted of his deeds. Though I am sure he is wracked with guilt, who can blame this guy for writing it off as crazy drunk talk and simply going back to sleep? Because here we are after the fact with overwhelming evidence that he did these horrible things and I still can’t believe it.

What happened to this man? Was it something stateside? Was it the brutality he must have experienced in combat tours that amount to more time than anyone ever was able to serve in WW2? A conflict which lasted just under 4 years after the Pearl Harbor Attack and ended in decisive victory?

Bales, according to witnesses, indiscriminately killed women and children in what I can only call a blood orgy. He was armed with an M4 sub-machine gun with an under barrel grenade launcher, a pistol and a knife. All were used in the attacks according to wikipedia. He was wearing his combat pants, helmet, a headlamp, some nightvision gear and a cape of some sort made from what a report called ‘a decorative window or door fabric’. On top of the fact that Bales actions alone show he was

mourners near the bodies of some of those allegedly murdered by Sgt Bales

insane, at least at that point, this is pretty freaky.

A cape? Did he imagine himself some avenging Superhero? Because outside Star Trek Villains and comic book Superhero’s I don’t see a lot of people working the cape. Hamid Kharzai, who I think is insane DOES wear a cape and is not a superhero. Whether or not Kharrazi is a Star Trek Villain is an open question. His name, manner of dress and apparent gracious yet malevolently inept nature do fit the mold.

Perhaps the most chilling aspect of the gripping testimony, given through translators, was apparently the final murder of the spree. Bales piled the bullet riddled corpses, many stripped naked, on top of each other. At this point, after dealing out so much merciless death, Bales was perhaps only an observer to his own actions in some ways, the man’s mind is unquestionably deeply damaged.
Grimly, purposefully, he made the funeral pyre. He set the fresh corpses on fire. As the flames spread and consumed those already murdered, Bales went back and seized another victim, a two year old girl, and simply threw her into the flames still alive to burn with her family. Given the afterthought quality of killing this child, who would never be able to testify against him, in such a gruesome and painful manner, one wonders if the verdict against Staff Sergeant Bales can be anything but Death. Certainly if this crime is not befitting a Death Penalty, then there should be no Death Penalty at all.

The Los Angeles Times provides further detail, related by a man named Adin who happened on the scene the next morning and spoke to survivors in the aftermath of the killings : “He described a grisly scene of bodies, many of them naked, burned in a pile; of women and children who had been shot directly in the head; of Nabiyah, less than 2, who it appeared was not shot. ‘It seems like she was just brought alive from her bed and put on fire,’ Adin testified. Two of the children, 4-year-old Fareeda, and 3-year-old Palwasha, had boot marks on their faces. ‘It appears she was kicked, because I saw some shoe mark on her face,’ Adin said of Fareeda. The other child, he said, had such marks on both her head and the rest of her body.”

The military personnel thanked him and Adin finished his Afghan massacre testimony with this simple appeal: “My request is to get justice.”

There are no words I can add to this to underscore the hideous nature of the crimes or the deeply damaged mind that sits inside of the body of what was once Robert Bales from outside Cincinnati, Ohio. Sadly the good man who was Robert Bales exists no more. He died inside when he took up a weapon and left the base. The collection of nerves, bone, muscle and tendon left behind is no longer what would be considered human anymore. If the deaths of Afghani civilians, mercifully low compared to what the Soviets did to them, do not pull at the conscience of the American people, perhaps the tale of a man who left behind the fields and factories of the American midlands for the mountains of Afghanistan to serve his country and was consumed by the War will.

What happened to this man? It raises questions as to what has been gained by remaining in Afghanistan now that Osama bin Laden is dead. The brutalization of something like 3 generations of American soldiers who are veterans of more combat than any other American Veterans of any American War ever will be unfolding until the last Veteran passes away . This will not help the already unfair image of the PTSD affected vet, unemployable and mangled inside from years of grueling sacrifice.

Bales is an aberration. He went off the deep end in a way your vet neighbor never will, but he has perpetuated a stereotype.

One of the most disturbing things about the situation is how anyone could have been sent back after so much combat time. Are we sending people to combat way too much because the nation would never stand for a draft? Even worse, would the war have ended decisively and quickly if there had been a draft?

William Calley, until now America’s most well known military mass murderer. Will Bales crime become the face of the Afghan War as the May Lai Massacre was for Vietnam?

SSgt Bales is like Major Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter in some ways. Most similar is that fact that clearly, he was not qualified to continue serving, yet no one caught it or it was ignored because of man power problems. The thought that unfit people are being trained and weaponized is disturbing.

If the burden of war has now extended to a lowering of military recruiting standards it poses a danger in and of itself. No amount

of head shrinking can mitigate severe damage or plumb the depths of a determined or exceptionally dark or clouded mind. That’s not the point, the point is, can the military lay out a justifiable case that they are still screening as well as they once did? Could SSgt Bales have been found out and rehabilitated, perhaps honorably discharged contingent on continuing aftercare BEFORE he was sent back to do what he did?

This is just one more reason we need to leave Afghanistan and consider the idea of simply quarantining it as an outlaw nation, something like ‘Escape From New York’, but on a national scale.

Maybe that’s Utopian but we had better start thinking of something, because Mission Creep is a chronic disorder and now it seems the casualties on our side have mounted in ways the most farfetched episode of “Homeland” could never imagine.

Iran has engaged a U.S. Drone Reuters said on Friday. CNN Anchor Don Lemon (who hates Jonah Hill, BTW) described the attacks as occurring ‘earlier this month.” General James “Spider “Marks, (US Army, ret.) told Lemon that the attack was a huge fail and the Iranians were unable to hit the drone with anything. This prompts the question- is there a cooler nickname for a general (or a convict, or a Mafioso like Michael Imperioli in “Goodfella’s”) than ‘Spider’?

This should be no surprise when you consider the fact that, as far as we know at this point, most, if not all drones are subsonic and small. You would need to really be well armed, probably with ‘dumb’ weapons, to hit that sucker. It’s possible that Heat Seeker missiles aren’t all that effective against the somewhat stealthy drones, so we’re talking about executing a pretty damn perfect “gun run” and blowing the thing out of the sky with good old fashioned machine guns. Meanwhile I am not able to tell you if it’s possible to tell if the drone is unarmed before you attack. So you’re risking human to kill a robot. Seems a bad trade off. The Iranians clearly couldn’t care less about their pilots. One of them killed by our robot is probably the thing that will happen next, even if they have to dupe a guy into colliding with one. Let’s face the current Iranian Regime isn’t exactly known for its placement of high value on the lives of their people. In fact if the United States Navy’s interpretation of events is to be believed, they set up their own people to be killed.

the USS Vincennes

In July 1988 a telling incident occurred that, although now well into the rearview, show how ongoing and abiding the hate the Iranian Government has always had for the United States runs as well as the blatant disregard they have for their own citizens. Apparently they baited the United States into what would on the surface seem to be a blatant atrocity. The USS Vincennes, a guided missile cruiser, shot down what radar and the emitter on the target identified as an Iranian fighter jet coming right at a US Naval Task Force in International waters.

What the target really was turned out to be French made Airbus that had a full complement of innocent passengers, including women and kids. This, if true, would mean the USS Vincennes Incident was manufactured by Tehran just to perpetuate hatred against the United States. This is a wise strategy if you are cynical and have no conscience.

During World War 2 citizens of all targeted cities became pretty patriotic because they felt threatened by and outright hated the enemies who were bombing them. It was something so odd sociologists are still trying to figure out exactly why it happened. Those who launched the attacks were looking to terrorize and break the will of the populace’s they attacked. Unleashing thousands of dumb bombs indiscriminately on a city had a counter-intuitive but universal effect, uniting the people being bombed and redoubling their resolve and nationalism. Even people with oppressive, unpopular governments in places like Germany and Russia fell in line behind these unlovable regimes. Think of it as a sort of reverse “Stockholm Syndrome”. This is ALSO a good strategy for Tehran, there’s nothing like an outside threat to unite a populace through “Bunker Mentality”

The Iranian people SO want their current regime gone that there is no avoiding the conclusion that Tehran knows some hating on the Great Satan, which is possibly the coolest nickname for us ANY of our opponents ever have come up with, would buy them some time. Good luck. Only brutal repression keeps these psychos’s in control of their oppressed populace, who almost threw off the yoke in the so called “Green Revolution”, several years ago.

The Iranian action was described as the allegedly unarmed drone having been “targeted” with some sort of weapon by ‘war planes’. Probably a Russian made MiG Flogger, a French Mirage Fighter or even just an old US made F-4 Phantom, or, possibly, a small combat patrol made up of 2 or more of the preceding.

Games without frontiers, War without tears….

So as details keep emerging from the resinous soup that is the Iran-US relationship I am going to engage in some rank speculation.

Why NOT attack a drone if you’re Iran? Your never gonna kill an American. Worst case scenario, some guy at MacDill Air Force Base spits his Sprite all over the screen while he’s trying to eat his Jimmy-John’s Sub on the sly. What is a drone anyway? Well it’s an iPad connected to a model airplane and sometimes armed with missiles. The Iranians have shot at least one of these things down already if they are to be believed (not the safest bet). At any rate we have seen them show off some wreckage that was pretty convincing. I am not so sure they shot it down as much as the piece of crap probably crashed in a sandstorm or something.

What we are really seeing is a move towards remote control warfare on a level only displayed by Skynet from Hollywood’s Terminator franchise. When will the first drone on drone engagement occur? Or; has that ALREADY happened? I would guess not but there’s no knowing for sure. Certainly we have completely sanitize war, at least as it is perceived by most Americans from the limited pictures coming back from places like Afghanistan. The footage is invariably damn near black and white if not infra-red green, so blood is not really visible when theses ‘targets’ get ‘droned’. In the most ideal cases selected for release seem to simply show the guys Toyota blowing up from a point of view that seems at least a quarter mile away at best. Poof! Bye-Bye Bad Man.

Reality has no frame of reference to where this is going, so I am forced to go with a 1967 episode of Star Trek called “A Taste of Armageddon”. The Enterprise forces contact on a planet where they have been at war with a solar neighbor for 500 years. The Enterprise crew marvel at the fact there is no sign of war whatsoever. This intensifies when the planet they are on is ‘attacked’. This is when Captain Kirk realizes the war was in fact a computer simulation and that the ‘casualties” were alive and well and eager as hell to jump into suicide booths so that the war would not turn “real”.

The fear was that war was a problem in itself, but the collateral aspects of war, beyond combat deaths, are even worse. Famine, plague, pestilence; all outside the equation. War was so surgical and precise and its cost so minimized that there was no need to end it. It became a fact of life. No one questioned it. NRA comparisons aside, is it possible we are so sanitizing war that there will be no point in seeking a lasting peace? Why negotiate when you can drone your problems out of existence with the ease of changing the channel.

Electric Eyes?

Oh yeah, you can bet this technology is being used domestically for a variety of reasons.

Analysis of the Candidates personalities through the prism of Star Trek-

Now that the second debate is behind us we have a representative sample of how both Romney and Obama think and operate. The most successful combination of personality traits for a leader can be interpreted through Star Trek. Specifically- how well does the candidate mix their own inner Kirk, Spock and McCoy?

The Kirk factor is boldness, initiative and swagger. It represents the risk taker and the natural leader aspects required of any leader. Charisma, personal charm and ability to be duplicitous when necessary are core traits of the Kirk factor.

The Spock factor is the strength of the candidate’s knowledge and command of a situation. It includes statistical and analytical skills that are vital to rational decision making. Theoretically impartial, the Spock Factor is responsible for the impact of the message, because numbers and Vulcans NEVER lie.

Finally, there is the McCoy Factor. The McCoy factor is an informed folksiness. McCoy has strong knowledge and background of experience. The McCoy factor is a perfectly honed double threat embodied in one thing- stark realism. The McCoy Factor is equal parts charm and caustic sarcastic cynicism. It serves the function of connecting Spock and Kirk. The McCoy Factor is cautious, but not hesitant. Logical, but able to think beyond the numbers. Most of the McCoy Factor is focused around engendering a greater understanding and a degree of harmony between the overly intellectual and the impetuous. Both the Spock and Kirk factors have grandiose elements. The McCoy factor mitigates these and is the bass guitar to Spock’s drums and Kirks ripping leads, bridging the gap.

Romney defaults to Kirk behavior in his overt persona. His inner McCoy is severely inhibited by his inner Spock, with whom it wages an eternal conflict. At the first debate Romney was able to muster just enough McCoy to pull off a masterful performance. His Spock Factor also ran at its highest so far as he showed command, if not realism, about the numbers that backed his arguments. He pushed the envelope of his Kirk-ness almost to the point of screaming “KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!” in debate One, but his inner McCoy was unleashed enough to hold the Kirk and Spock aspects together just enough to make it fly that night. A good mix of the Kirk, Spock and McCoy delivered Victory to Romney.

Obama, on the other hand came into the second debate after a performance in the first where he attempted to go full on Spock and had been easily destroyed by Romney. McCoy and Kirk made no appearance at all. Romney used a plot device directly lifted from several episodes of original Star Trek, the Two Kirks approach. It was an effective ploy. Some sort of transporter malfunction or ion storm had created an alternate Mitt Romney that Obama was completely unprepared for.

From the start of the second debate Romney was pure Kirk, foolishly turning his back on the inner Spock and McCoy. He never was folksy and convincing; he never presented a logical justification of his plans. His math seemed shaky when questioned and he exhibited the very worst aspect of Kirk; a cavalier and objectified view of women. Indeed, Romney had the sort of understanding of women that the Enterprise crew had at the beginning of an episode. A sketch satellite view and confirmation of life, but not as he knew it.

Obama, on the other hand, lead with his inner McCoy. He was more believable and tactile to viewers than in the First Debate. In typical Star trek Fashion he was limping into battle already beat up from a previous engagement. McCoy had stitched the worst wounds and kept the fires burning by keeping the Red Shirts in the fight. Surrogates had softened up the target and through Biden’s utter extirpation of Ryan a tactical schematic had been developed. The last element, Obama’s Inner Spock was the easiest for Obama to channel but the most important one to control. Spock can be high handed and detached. Prone to exceedingly long winded technical answers, high handed and unwilling to articulate on what seems unquestionable logic to him. This was exactly what went wrong for Obama in the first debate. He never tapped into his Inner Kirk or McCoy to mitigate.

Obama was able to seem presidential and competent through the use of his limited amount of Inner Kirk to mitigate the calculations of his Inner Spock. The Inner McCoy worked seamlessly this time, uniting the two remaining traits and focusing them, phazer-like, onto Mitt Romney. Scarred and looking more like a Romulan than a Vulcan Romney continued to default to Kirk. He failed again and again to connect to the average American as he staggered about, shirt torn and lip bleeding. McCoy was in hibernation deep within Romney and was no help at all. Exposed and alone, the Kirk approach was completely doomed.

The calculated risk taken by Romney using the Benghazi attack to trash Obama as incompetent was easily absorbed by Obama’s shields. The two candidates were toe to toe in the arena and both men went pure Kirk for a moment. Obama’s Kirk won in a Shatnerian display worthy a master political thespian. His outrage at Romney’s direct statements that Obama was responsible for the death of Ambassador Stevens was summed up with Obama driving home one thing many people have come to believe about Romney anyway- that he is, in fact, an offensive guy.

Obama was able to effectively counter Romney’s continual “two Kirks” approach by showing them for the dissimilar, polar opposites that could not exist apart. He painted Romney as a walking contradiction lacking key aspects of a healthy psyche. Romney’s inner Kirk is deeply flawed and had maneuvered him into several displays of bluster his inner Spock or McCoy should have been able to stop or at least slow down.

Going into the ramp up to the final debate the mission for Obama is to Boldly Go and delivers the same balanced character he presented on Tuesday night at Hofstra. The Romney campaign has a more difficult task. They must minimize the Bi-Polar aspect of Romney’s core leadership style; awaken his ability to connect, should any remain, and to shore up his logic and numbers credibility.

One thing is certain; after each debate evidence has emerged showing we are in a strange new world that features massive statistical jumps and anomalies. Forecasting beyond the next debate is simply not possible.

Mitt Romney will do his best to portray a Ritualized version of Ronald Reagan tonight at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.

Mitt Romney and the GOP Cargo Cult – By John McTeag, 10-16-12

Hempstead, NY- With hours to go before the second presidential debate for the 2012 General Election many in the media talk of the possible paths to victory open to President Obama and Republican Nominee Mitt Romney. Winning over women, projecting an ability to be in command of the current Great Recession, and just seeming presidential are major focuses of the “Paths” approach. Instead of “Paths to Victory” I am viewing tonight’s contest with an eye on a different facet of today’s debate analysis, I call it “The Shackles of Defeat.”
Known Shackles include the candidates individual records. These have been analyzed to death and back by traditional media, so we’ll leavethose alone.
A Shackle of Defeat is anything that reduces the individual candidate’s ability to nuance their approach or engage in espousing creative and possibly innovative policy overtures. The biggest and least discussed Shackle for either candidate stands against Romney, Cargo Cult Republicanism.
What are Cargo Cult Republicans? Cargo Cult Republicans are those whose behavior and beliefs have devolved into a quasi-religious mindset towards Modern American Conservatism revolving around the 1980’s and Ronald Reagan in an idealized, ritualized and unrealistic way. The influence of this aspect of modern American Conservatism is palpable yet there has been very little discussion of it.
The classic historical Cargo Cult refers to a quasi-religious phenomenon that arose on the isolated pacific islands used as bases by various militaries during the Second World War. The native islanders in places like Papua, New Guinea had not had much contact with the outside world. Their ways of viewing the day to day world included a good dose of the paranormal. If someone got sick, perhaps a curse had been put upon them. Flood? Famine? Perhaps the villagers aren’t living up to the standards of their pantheon of deities. A thumbnail description would be that they fed the Volcano to pacify the gods,

–Members of the John Frum cult in New Guinea imitating American Soldiers in their “ritual”

who were surely a bit crazy.
After the Second

World War began in the Pacific the lives of the native islanders were subject to massive culture shock. Literally overnight and literally out of the sky in the form of shiny silver airplanes as well as great iron beasts from the sea came the mid-20th century. None of the previous limited contacts with outsiders provided a frame of reference for what transpired on their islands, their very world, as emerged over the weeks following arrival of troops from both sides of the conflict. To these isolated natives the idea that an internal combustion engine would spin gears and operate pistons to spin a propeller to power a vehicle capable of carrying goods or people was inconceivable. Imagine and bringing a flashlight, cigarette lighter and .9mm pistol via time traveling helicopter to Dark Ages Europe to get any sort of grip on this.
To the natives of islands such as those of New Guinea the planes were not machines but great beasts akin to hollow metal dragons. They were summoned from the sky by rituals at a holy temple, or as we would call it, a Military Airfield. The “rituals” were the day to day operations of the base. Waiving in incoming planes with flags and lighting runways. Groups of identically clad men marching in formation, sometimes firing their bang sticks!!

The Gangster Planet featured in the Original Star Trek Episode “A Piece of the Action” is an illustration of a classic “Cargo Cult”. One of the shows most popular episodes and most Americans only glimpse at Cargo Cults

In the wake of the Second World War these isolated bases were mostly abandoned and life, for the natives, returned to ‘normal’. But it was a ‘New Normal’. They had become accustomed to the gleaming aluminum dragons regularly summoned by the clergy (read: US Navy Sea Bees) with the sacred relics (read: radios, landing lights and parades). No longer were the great beasts from the air and sea disgorging the cargo they desired. Gone was the supply of canned goods, textiles and the giant crates that had seemed like enormous wooden eggs that birthed the coveted “cargo”.
In a turn of events still being studied by sociologists and historians, the Cargo Cults emerged. The natives formed into cults of sorts and imitated in ritualistic fashion the actions of the men who had summoned the great beats and cargo from the sky. Coconuts were fashioned into radio headsets, bamboo control towers were created. Uniformly dressed men marched in ritual manners similar to the military drills they had seen under the mistaken belief that by simply doing so they themselves would please the gods of the sky and bring down the shiny metal beasts filled with goodies. These beliefs were personified in the form of an image of an American World War 2 Sailor, frequently portrayed as African American, known as “John Frumm”. Think of him as a sort of Santa-Jesus type. British occupied areas developed similar cults based on an idealized perception of Prince Phillip.
The John Frumm Movement and Prince Phillip Societies still exist today in New Guinea. Despite the fact that these places slowly became less isolated and were slowly but steadily overtaken by rational explanations of the outside world some still cling to the Cargo Cult beliefs. In the case of the Prince Phillip society egotistical detachment from reality is shared by the object of their affection. Prince Phillip perhaps unwittingly endorses the cult’s beliefs by sending gifts and autographs. This leads to the inevitable conclusion that what is really needed, by the prince and his worshipers, is some help handling a brutal but needed dose of reality. This need also applies to early 21st Century Tea party Republicans. Ritualized Reaganistic Worldview has become a meme accepted by most Republicans, albeit for the most part unknowingly.
The most familiar Cargo Cult known to Americans in popular culture would be the “Gangster Planet” in the famous episode of Star Trek “A Piece of the Action”, where an isolated planet had been exposed to 23rd century technology by earlier space travelers. When the Enterprise arrives a generation later they find an entire culture influenced by a book the first contactor’s left behind about 1920’s gangster culture in places like Chicago and New York. By looking, dressing and acting like the gangsters they read about the natives of Sigma Iota IV were attempting to make a great leap forward by throwing themselves feet first into imitating a society that had been outlined in book that to them seemed a blue print to the “cargo” they had seen accompanying the first earthmen they met, technology and abilities that would provide for worry free prosperity.
How does this apply to early 21st century American Conservatism? The Republican Party is now packed with under qualified ideologues, who espouse an unrealistic image of a worry free past, in this case, the Go Go 1980’s. The images of John Frumm (a bastardization of “John From America”) and Prince Phillip have been replaced by an idealized, unrealistic image of Ronald Reagan. Like John Frumm, Ritual Reagan is a demi god who summoned “Cargo” (read: Worry free prosperity) through rituals that included sparring with the Russians, a somewhat narrow social view and an overemphasis on an extreme interpretation of “Christian” thought.
To one degree or another every single modern conservative is a member of a Reagan oriented Cargo Cult. The Cargo Cult mentality has threaded its way into every aspect of current Republican narrative.
The Cargo Cult Volcano God demands certain sacrifices be made lest it grow angry and erupt. Among other things, it demands ritual.
Repeated mawkish Ritualistic displays by Romney have so far done nothing to dispel the validity of the Caro Cult Assertion.
Romney seizes upon every perceived advantage and this is no exception. It’s not a difficult role in its Ritualistic Form. There’s some passing physical resemblance, both coincidental and contrived between Romney and Reagan. Among these are their hair, approximate build and hypomanic personalities. Romney seems to be smugly emitting what he seemingly thinks is a subliminal puppet show where he plays Ritualized Reagan. Pushing on the physical he layers on a veneer of the cold warrior aspect of Reagan by strapping on the coconut headphones of some sort of bamboo transmitter and sending pugilistic messages to the Russians, who are clearly not a threat to the United States in 2012. Another Ritual Reagan rain dance is over emphasizing the level of danger posed by Iran. While an outlaw nation and a sponsor of terrorism, the current sanctions and global shunning seem to be worth sticking worth for a while to most Americans who are leery of another American Ground War in an unstable part of the world.

A replica Second World War plane used in John Frum Movements rituals. Is the GOP Elephant now an equivalent Trojan Horse of Willful Blindness?

I think in the last few weeks Mitt Romney has become a true believer in his own Reagan-ness.He may well be operating with the Ritualized Reagan approach as a default position on everything. It’s a Franken-Ronnie with none of the warmth and conviction of the original. The “Cargo” aka the Go Go 80’s, can only be delivered by making the Ritualized Reagan, that is Mitt Romney, in the White House. He can then summon the great gleaming beasts from the sky that birth the great wooden eggs filled with the canned goods (aka-worry free prosperity).
This Shackle of Defeat for Romney is one that can be exploited. The Ritualized Reagan that he pantomimes doesn’t square with the real Reagan. Reagan was confronting a real threat from Soviet Russians. Reagan was a culture warrior, but only after being a patriotic America type who believed in some practicality and some tolerance. When Reagan spoke of Libya that country was run by an evil dictator since deceased in fantastic fashion due directly to initiatives taken by the Cargo Cults hated “Anti-Reagan”, President Obama, who realistically could be argued is a truer heir to Reagan’s positions on Libya by doing so. Ritual Reagan is at his weakest on Libya.
Despite a display of unpresidential weakness best left behind in his bumbling and inept reactions to the 9-11 attacks in Libya, Romney revisits the issue at every opportunity. Is he doing this because his “Inner Reagan” simply knee jerks him into having to include comments about Libya into his rhetoric? It can only hurt him. If someone has a better explanation for this obviously misguided attempt to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat on what any other candidate would have rightly moved on from please leave me a comment.
The “rank and file core base republicans’, (read: formerly disavowed extremists from the Wild Wild Allen West Wing of the party) show strong and prevalent evidence of Cargo Cult behavior in social media. They promote Romney as a Pseudo Reagan “Mitt-siah” who is waving in the all-important cargo planes. His one unquestioned credential, ruthless and unaccountable vulture capitalism is a direct result of the unregulated excesses of the 1980’s. This is manifested best in his regulation hating approach to managing the economy. De-personalization and detachment from reality are evident in the Hoover era bootstrap “Rugged Individualism” that has become part of a negative feedback loop that convinces many Republicans they live in Bill Clinton’s proverbial “log cabin they built themselves”.
On the economy Ritual Reagan Romney may have a perceived edge, but this can be unmasked. Obama can paint Romney as a Non Reagan who merely benefitted from then effective but now outdated policies and a lack of regulation that was appalling. For supporters of the president the “Path to Victory” may well be-How well can Obama exploit and secure this Shackle of Defeat to Romney? The dead corpse of Ritual Reagan will be a great impediment should Obama show it for the farcical joke that it is. This will be a tough task for Obama but it is do-able. This is, of course, providing that the Obama Campaign has become aware of the existence of the Cargo Cult Shackle of Defeat and opts to exploit it.

Third Debate Update- The Cargo Cults most likely Guises–

In the wake of the strong performance of Barack Obama in the second debate look for Mitt Romney to do some serious Cargo Cult Ritual. The third and final debate features Foreign Policy, an area where Romney is justifiably considered to be weak. His best bet and most likely tactic is bellicose saber rattling. In Particular he will try to focus on Egypt, the Israeli-Palestinian situation, China, Iran and of course, Libya. He will likely go with a straight Reagan foreign policy approach. Libya is a key aspect of Reagan’s presidency and a situation that still remains volatile. There are obvious ways Romney can and most likely WILL connect these situations to the 1980’s and Ronald Reagan.

No respect will be paid by Romney to the slain ambassador, he will be portrayed as a victim of Obama’s foreign policy and not as a Patriot who was murdered by al Qaeda type terrorists.

Romney need not show an overall mastery of the world situation, just a tough talking schematic of his ideas. He will bring the argument home as often as possible.